Mentioned:
Nasdaq sees a promising future in digital assets. And now, they’re making a big bet on the parent company of Kraken.
What’s happening:
- Nasdaq’s (NASDAQ: NDAQ) venture capital arm has entered into a new agreement to invest $100M USD into Kraken’s parent company Payward
Why it matters:
- This is the single largest equity investment that Nasdaq has ever made directly into a crypto company
Going deeper:
- Payward and Nasdaq have both publicly stated they are aiming to advance the framework around tokenized stocks that would be compliant with existing securities rules in the United States and carry the same voting and dividend rights as the underlying company shares
- Payward just recently made major waves when they partnered with the London Stock Exchange to tokenize the 100 largest listed companies in the United Kingdom
- Citadel Securities notably made a $200M USD strategic investment in Payward’s prior capital raise at a $20B USD valuation
The intrigue:
- Nasdaq previously made a $50M USD strategic investment into Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss’ crypto exchange Gemini Space Station (NASDAQ: GEMI) as part of a broader partnership to enable Nasdaq’s clients to directly access custody and staking of digital assets
The fine print:
- The valuation that Nasdaq’s venture capital arm is investing in Payward at has not yet been publicly disclosed
